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Highway to Heroin

You might be thinking, “I would never do heroin and even if I did, I would never become addicted to it”. People who experiment with pain reliever pills or opiates (commonly referred to as “pill heads”) like Percocets, Oxycodone (Oxies), Fentanyl, Morphine, Dilaudid, Demerol, Darvon, Vicodin, etc. often think they don’t have a problem. After all, they are just experimenting right? That may be true…at first. Unfortunately, those experimenting with pills are on what I like to refer to as the “Highway to Heroin”.

The reality is, opiate use ultimately leads to more opiate use. Those who use pills will eventually require something stronger. At first, 20 mg of oxycodone may be enough to experience the long awaited feeling of elation, that “high” feeling people chase after. After awhile however, more and more of the same drug will be needed to experience the same feeling. Most people who use oxycodone and other opiates turn to heroin for two reasons:

1. The opiate of choice is no longer strong enough to provide the “high” someone is after due to an increase in tolerance
2. Costs of pharmaceuticals are extremely high unless someone has a prescription

Statistically speaking 1 in 15 people who take non-prescription opiate pain relievers will try heroin within 10 years. Moreover, in 2010 approximately 1 in 20 adolescents and adults (which equates to around 12 million people) used opiates when it was not prescribed to them 14% of these users (equating to approximately 1.9 million people) turned to heroin.

Out of those who use pain medication (opiates) recreationally, 14% of them have become dependent on them aka are addicted. Out of those who use heroin, 54% of them have become dependent on it aka are addicted. These numbers have climbed immensely since 2005 and are apparently still climbing.

You might think you are an exception to the above but the reality is, unless you are prescribed pain medication and using it as prescribed by a medical professional, abusing any drug can be just as dangerous as heroin. People can and have died from abusing pain pills (like oxycodone) and the likelihood of this happening increases when they are used on conjunction with other types of pills, especially benzodiazepines (benzos) such as Xanax, Klonopin, etc.

So if you are using opiates recreationally, you may need help. The good news is, we are here to help. To contact us directly, you can email us at help@killtheheroinepidemicnationwide.org. To get anonymous help and to speak with other recovering addicts like you, visit our Heroin Addiction Discussion Forum. For information on credible treatment options, visit “Recommended Treatments for Heroin Addiction”.